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DestinationsWay Back Machine

On the Rocks at Cape Henlopen: Breaking New Ground Since the 1800s

This is a free excerpt from the revised 2nd edition of Eastern Shore Road Trips #1: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. Every chapter in that book has an afernote like this, telling a story from days gone by. This one appears in the road trip devoted to Rehoboth Beach. Thanks for reading! Sometimes the best stories a pretty scene has to tell are actually hiding…
December 31, 2020
Way Back Machine

A Wild, Icy Ride on Sharps Island Light

Many of you have climbed up into the cottage of a screwpile lighthouse. Perhaps in St. Michaels, Md. at the Maritime Museum. Or in Cambridge, Md. on the waterfront. Perhaps some of you been in one of those beacons on a day so cold and windy you could feel the whole cottage shaking. OK, now imagine three things: (1) The cottage stands out in the…
December 30, 2020
CharactersHome Page FeatureWay Back Machine

We Have a Blind Irishman to Thank for Our “Chesapeake” Lighthouses

The Chesapeake lighthouse, with its splayed legs supporting a homey cottage set atop a platform rising from the sea, ranks today as a defining icon for the region. I set out recently to learn more about how those beacons came to be and soon found my way to a tale two centuries and 3,000 miles away. Spoiler alert #1: The hero of the story is…
December 30, 2020
CharactersWay Back Machine

The Honeymooners at Great Shoals Light

When 19-year-old Vernon Cooper landed at the mouth of the Wicomico River, the Wisconsin native didn’t catch on right away that he’d found his forever home. He didn’t have a crystal ball. He couldn’t see that there was a Dames Quarter gal in his future. The U.S. Coast Guard stationed Vernon at Great Shoals Light in 1951. That screwpile affair had been guiding vessels on…
December 30, 2020
DestinationsWay Back Machine

A Quick Visit to Little Claiborne, Md. with Six Great Old Photos

I lead the way along “Talbot County Backroads” in a chapter from my book Eastern Shore Road Trips #1: 27 One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. On this trip we wind along one country road after another—they’re all beautiful, and they all have interesting stories to tell. Case in point: Here is the snippet from the book about Claiborne, Md.: "Back on straight and narrow Route 33,…
December 7, 2020
Quote of the DayWay Back Machine

Delaware Quote of the Day: The Great Turkey-Thief Crime Wave of 1934!

Here is a detailed report from the Wilmington (Del.) News Journal that appeared on Nov. 27, 1934 under the headline below. "Thieves Steal Fowl, Haul to City 'Fences':" A band of chicken and turkey thieves are operating from Harrington and Milford to the Delaware-Maryland line at Delmar, and hundreds of the fowl are reported to have been stolen within the past few weeks. The thieves…
November 26, 2020
Way Back Machine

In the Land of Holly: Wreath-Making in Southern Delaware

If you find yourself in Southern Delaware this Christmas season, you will be riding through the “Land of Holly.” The story of that nickname dates to 1890, when a man named William Buell in the little burg of Farmington, near Milford, chased after a business idea that had popped into his head. He harvested loose twigs and branches from holly trees, bright with red berries…
November 25, 2020
CharactersWay Back Machine

Fruitland! “The Holly Capital of the Peninsula”

The holly-wreath industry on Delmarva was born at the turn of the 20th century in Southern Delaware, then quickly moved across the border into Maryland. Soon enough, holly became known far and wide as “Maryland’s Christmas Crop.” Estimates of the number of Eastern Shore residents involved in that holly trade in any given year run as high as 10,000. Most were farmers, looking to earn…
November 25, 2020